So I’ve been using this thing for a little while now, and I’m getting to like it. I haven’t touched my personal laptop for any reason other than to use it as a media center, and I’ve done all my personal web stuff on this. I’ve tried to use the Cr48 at work with little success. Due to some rather interesting network policies, and even more interesting ways of enforcing them, the only resource I can actually reach with this thing is my personal TVersity site...cool service, but I don’t go to work to watch streaming video. There are some changes coming down the pike that are supposed to separate us from our host company in that regard, so I’ll keep trying. I may get use out of this thing in meetings yet.
With that out of the way, I’d like to complain a little about some of the little issues that will hopefully get covered when the Chrome OS finally goes prime time. Yes, I’ve complained through the requested Google channels (I hope they’ll act on them), but now I’m bored, so I’ll complain here, tweet about the complaints, and if you’ve read this far, you’re probably interested. If not, please stop reading now. I’ll not be held responsible for forcing you to read something that doesn’t interest you.
1) I’ve set up three profiles on my Cr48. I thought it was cool, I’m a geek, what ever. One for my personal gmail account, one for my Google apps account, and finally one for my employer’s Google apps account. All Google, all the time. If they had a position for a c# developer, there’s a damn good chance I’d take it. I go back and forth between these three accounts a little bit. Well, quite a bit, because switching from one user to the next really isn’t all that painful. I’ve noticed that from time to time, if I log out of one profile, in to another, out of the other, and back to the first, the first profile loads with an error stating that the browser failed to shut down property, would I like to restore it. That really ought to be fixed.
2) Logon profile names - This annoys me. As it turns out, each of my profiles are based on my name. As such, they are each very similar. The multiple profiles are a nice touch, but it would be even better if you could provide an alias for the login. Something like “My Personal Profile,” and “My Work Profile” to differentiate between profiles with very similar user names.
3) Useless without network access - I’ve mentioned this before, and yeah, I know it’s supposed to be a Web portal, and nothing more, but I was quite surprised to find that I can download and save files to the local drive. Google has been kind enough to provide offline access in the browser, and that feature would increase the usefulness of the Cr48 by many times. I’ll refer to the rather interesting network policies I mentioned earlier. With offline access, I can make use of my Cr48 in the office, in conference rooms with no network access (it seems to happen quite a bit), and other situations where Internet access is limited or not available. Yes, it has 3g, but that’s another issue. Let’s call it 3a)
3a) Wifi and 3g only. Yes, I can buy a 3g plan from Verizon, but there are a couple of problems with that. First, I’m not going to buy yet another data plan. I already have one with my Internet at home, another to power my Android, and yet a third to power my wife’s Android. I am not going to buy another data plan for my Cr48. Second, if I was going to buy a data plan, I certainly wouldn’t buy it from Verizon. I’ve been with t-mobile since they were VoiceStream, a good 10 or so years, and I’m not about to jump ship now. I’ve got my eye on a Nexus S. When I get my hands on that I’ll give it a shot and see if I can use that to get me online.
4) It seems slow since the recent update. I admit I haven’t paid much attention to speeds, and when it started to seem to slow down, but I think all of that happened around the same time. I hope that one gets cleared up next time they push out an update.
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